Halsey, William F.
Halsey, William F. (1882–1959) fleet admiral, U.S. Navy, World War II.Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Halsey graduated from the Naval Academy in 1904. In the 1930s, he learned to fly and became a leading advocate of carrier warfare. During the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was at sea, commanding the carrier Enterprise. In the spring of 1942, he helped orchestrate a series of carrier raids in the Pacific against enemy strongholds, including the famous James Doolittle bomber attack on Tokyo. Later, as commander of the South Pacific theater in 1942–44, he directed forces that captured Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and several other key islands in the Solomons.
During and after the Battle of Leyte Gulf (October 1944), Halsey was criticized for sailing his fleet northward in pursuit of enemy decoy...
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